Pushing Tin

Nick Falzone is the top air traffic controller at the Long Island facility that handles thousands of flights into New York's airports every day. Confident and loud, he has built his life around being the best at a job where a single mistake can endanger hundreds of people, and he goes home to his wife Connie and their two children. That order is disturbed by the arrival of Russell Bell, a new controller whose calm, fearless manner makes him Nick's equal in the control room. The two men begin competing over everything, and their rivalry spills out of the tower and into their private lives.

Mike Newell directed the film, which came after Donnie Brasco in his filmography and before Mona Lisa Smile. Glen Charles and Les Charles wrote the screenplay, and Art Linson produced. John Cusack plays Nick, with Billy Bob Thornton as Russell, Cate Blanchett as Connie and Angelina Jolie as Mary Bell, alongside Jake Weber and Kurt Fuller. The production cost about 33 million dollars and returned roughly 8 million worldwide, a poor result. On IMDb it holds 6 out of 10 from around 32,000 votes, on TMDB 5.9 from 449, and critics gave it 5.9 from 66 reviews, putting professional and audience responses at much the same level.